Sparring fights

Sparring fights are similar to normal duels, but only take place between friends.[1] Strangely enough, these duels are staged purely in the imagination of the two participating heroes so nobody is hurt (physically) in these friendly fights and no duel records are affected,[2] making these fights very useful if a hero needs to gain some experience quickly without the risk of dropping down a few places in the pantheon. The Coach achievement is awarded to heroes who spar with at least 10 friends, and Coach, 1st rank requires sparring at least once with 200 different friends.

Just as with duels, when the fight begins, both heroes have their health set to the maximum health of the lower leveled hero and the attacking power of both heroes is also set to that of the lower leveled hero. However, during the fight, the higher leveled hero can use the encourage influence or voice commands to heal to their actual maximum health. Once the fight is over, the heroes will return to questing and their health returns to whatever it was before the sparring fight began. Unlike fights in the arena, the winner of a spar will not gain the loser's gold coins and inventory. However, the winner will gain one percentage point of experience.

The effort needed to forge the telepathic link with another hero means that to participate, a hero must be level 7[2] and a god must have at least 50% Godpower. To commence a sparring fight, select "Sparring fight" from the menu in a friend's chat window, or "Spar a Friend" from the Remote Control and select a friend from the list. From the Remote Control, friends who your hero has sparred with before are marked with a [✓] (on web) or ✓ (in app) to assist with the Coach achievement.[3] The list can also be searched by typing all or part of a god or hero's name, and on web is an extra option to display only friends with whom your hero has not sparred yet.

When a god initiates a spar, the challenged god will receive a notification allowing them to accept the challenge if they are not currently on an adventure. The challenger's hero will drop everything and go into a trance while waiting for the other party to respond. This includes all forms of quests, healing at town, selling off loot, shopping, praying or fighting a monster. Likewise, when the friend accepts the spar invite they will drop everything they are doing immediately. If the friend doesn't respond to the challenge within five minutes, or is not currently able to spar, the hero will return to their business after waiting for 5 minutes. Coordinating your challenge with a friend when they are online and chatting with you via private messages is wise, to avoid wasting godpower. A message will automatically show up in the private chat between the involved gods informing them that the attempt to spar has timed out.

Although health returns to what it was prior to the duel, any godpower used (for influences or voice commands) is actually expended and will not be restored upon completion of the duel.

Following a spar, a god cannot request another spar for 4 hours. However, a god can accept a spar request during that time.

Spar Etiquette

Immediately after, the inviting god should send a salutary message and a request to spar. E.g. "Hello, I hope all is going well with you. Would you like to spar some time?"

The invitee god should then respond with reasonable haste. In other words, don't leave the other god hanging. If the invitee does not want to spar, an appropriate message can also be added to the response message.

Next, the gods must find a time to spar. Gods can leave simple messages for each other including "spar?", "spar now?", "can you spar in 3 hours?", or "spar? Or I'll send you another message in 12 hours." Prearranging a time to spar is ideal because Gods are very busy. During this time, gods can also arrange fighting limitations including no influences (so long as the spar is not done for a tournament). Blindly sending a spar request is a little rude and is unlikely to be accepted.

Once the two gods arrange a time to spar, the invitee god usually spends the 50% god power to initiate the spar (unless a different arrangement has been specified), since the inviting god spent an invite. The initiating god should send a message "sending request now" to prevent the other god from sending a spar request and to prevent duplicate requests being sent.

The gods should then honor the pre-fight limitations agreement. If none are specified, then a god should message the other god and receive permission before using an encourage, punish, or attack/heal voice command. Gods should also request permission to give a pray voice command, but if the other god does not respond, then its ok to give pray voice commands without permission. Never use a miracle during a spar, period.

After a spar has completed. Both gods should thank the other god for the spar. A simple "thanks for the spar" message is appropriate. This message will also assist the gods in documenting who their hero has sparred with.